ABSTRACT
Doug dawdles down to the Quality department, eager to step into the meeting with a fresh perspective on helping people. He has always appreciated the Quality department but, quite frankly, the range of employees in the Quality department at Square M's seems to be rather slim. Perhaps that relates to the actual role of an effective Quality person. Doug realizes that the Quality department has the role of saying “No.” This is not always an 10easy thing to do when the Production leadership wants to make sure the parts are approved and shipped for an urgently needed customer order. Everyone wants to work together and do the right things, but the quality role must stand in the crosshairs of customer delivery and appropriate product quality. To make matters worse, in the world of manufacturing, the line of good quality can sometimes be a little blurry. Of course, it is true that there are prints and specifications and all the detail one would ever want behind these written documents. There are also allowances when things don't quite meet the requirements of the part specification but are still acceptable for a customer. The deviations from standard are dependent on many variables, but surely the Quality department has a big part in the final say of what gets shipped and what does not get shipped. So, when Doug thinks about the narrow range of Quality department people, he does so with a reasonable amount of respect. Howie Shears, for example, is one of the best employees in the department and always negotiates diplomatically with everyone on a good solution to the gray area that originally caused the discussion with the Quality department. He is a logical, process thinker who uses a combination of good, practical engineering knowledge together with a strong dose of common sense. Unfortunately, he is not always the main contact for every product in the facility. Don Salles, on the other hand, is the kind of guy that would simply prefer to make you suffer. He has no interest in your perspective and only wants to adhere to the letter of the law—the actual specifications; and, I might add, as only he sees them. There is no need for discussion with him, because he simply doesn't want to budge. In fact, it almost appears like he enjoys telling people “no.” Why do people like this exist in manufacturing? Why do they tend to gravitate to the Quality department? Doug thinks the answer is obvious. Their natural propensity to be stubborn fits well with the role 11of maintaining outgoing quality. They realize that customer perception and customer satisfaction is related to the ability to support the agreement to send them product that meets the agreed upon dimensions and characteristics. They are not interested in product recalls, angry customers, or bad media coverage on the quality of the products. They feel very proud of what they stand for and how important their stubbornness can be. So, yes, the gravitational pulls of particular types of people make it easy to understand that the range is thin. Doug knows that, even before heading into the meeting.
